Five things to know about Ghost of Sparta

The release of God of War: Ghost of Sparta for PSP this next week, bookends the year with a strong pair of titles for the series. And while God of War 3 on PS3 may have gotten the lion’s share of the hype, Ghost of Sparta is no shirking violet, managing to stand up to its elder sibling and then some. We had a chance recently to talk with game director Dana Jan of Ready At Dawn, the development studio also behind the earlier Chains of Olympus. Here are a few things we learned about what to expect from Ghost of Sparta (minor spoilers to follow):

1. The events of Ghost of Sparta are tied in with the ending(s) of the first God of War … Granted, we’re talking about elements revealed in bonus videos after you pass the game, so you couldn’t exactly hold them as canon to the rest of the series before Ghost of Sparta came out. But early on we see events play out that diligent players of the very first game will recognize. Jan says that every director in the series has toyed with incorporating this plot line, but it was Ready At Dawn who ultimately got to rework the story and make it their own.

2. … and the opening level of God of War 3. Development for Ghost of Sparta had overlapped with God of War 3 at one point, leading to an exchange of ideas at times between Ready At Dawn and Santa Monica Studio. The outcome of one level in Ghost of Sparta that Jan says conveniently provides “a reason for Poseidon to be so pissed when you fight him at the beginning of (God of War 3).”

3. Kratos gets angrier than we’ve ever seen him before. While the entire series seems to revolve around Kratos’ anger issues, a brief cutscene in Ghost of Sparta is the first we’ve seen of uncontrollable rage on his part (and it doesn’t take place in an action sequence either). But Jan also points out the nuances of Kratos’ building anger, and how it’s paced out over the course of the series: “He’s a warrior, he’s very reactive. It’s not that he’s not intellectual or smart, it’s that sometimes people push his buttons and his physicality takes over.”

Sony

The Prince of Sparta?

4. But he also borrows some moves from 2008′s kinder, gentler Prince of Persia (though not without some macho embellishments). Prince of Persia had a lot of moments where the Prince would jump on inclines and slide down awhile before jumping off again. Jan liked the move, but decided that bunny hopping from awning to awning was “not very Kratos.” Instead, he digs his blade into the ground and sends sparks flying as he descends, before culminating in a big Die Hard-style leap. It’s an invigorating moment, given its more languid inspiration.

5. Sometimes less is more. There’s actually fewer blocking animations than in Chains of Olympus. Kratos had four blocking animations in the older game that would change depending on which side he was attacked from. “We had over complicated in the last game,” Jan says, “which actually led to inconsistencies and problems in the timings of the block and made the controls not quite as crisp as they should be.” To fix the issue, they simply went back to a single animation as seen in the console versions. (But that doesn’t mean they’ve skimped on the animation. Jan also mentions that while climbing, having Kratos’ feet dangle at some moments and find his footing against the wall at others “cost us twice the animation budget.”)

God of War: Ghost of Sparta is available now on PlayStation Portable for $39.99